This young American author's previous work is What
Is The Matter With Kansas. He writes in a breezy, at times sarcastic
style, and his work is well researched.

His theme is the overall incompetence and corruption of
Republican administrations. In his introduction he lays out this as:
"Fantastic misgovernment of the kind we have seen is not an accident, nor
is it the work of a few bad individuals. It is the consequence of triumph
by a particular philosophy of government, by a movement that understands
the liberal state as a perversion and considers the market the ideal nexus
of human society. This movement is friendly to industry not just by force
of campaign contributions but by conviction; it believes in
entrepreneurship not merely in commerce but in politics; and the
inevitable results of its ascendance are, first, the capture of the state
by business and, second, all that follows: incompetence, graft, and all
the other wretched flotsam that we have come to expect from Washington."
And "Conservatism in-power is a very different beast from the
conservatism we meet in Wichita..."

He starts with a description of Loudon County,
Virginia, a suburb of Washington, the richest county in the land and
assumed by many as the home of fat federal bureaucrats. This is, in fact
the home of hundreds of corporate offices but no manufacturing. The
housing, since the eighties, is ostentatious, aristocratic and
gargantuan. Names like Grand Monet and Grand Rembrandt and vast floor
areas are the norm. And the residents are private sector beneficiaries of
government largesse- weapons designers, computer servicers, contract
winners of every description and, of course, lobbyists.

One of these residents was Jack Abramoff, currently
relaxing in the Big House for up to six years. He started a movement
called College Republicans during the Reagan years and quickly discovered
that significant revenues could be generated by peddling right -wing
grievances to the like-minded. A fundraiser remarked that "There was so
much money ready for conservative organizations that the problem was
finding ways to spend that money." Thus, a series of tax-exempt
foundations and charities were incorporated to take on causes such as the
return of the Panama Canal, freedom fighters in Nicaragua and Angola,
anti-communism, campus organizations for Ralph Nader, liberal professors,
environmentalists, arts programs, atheistic scoundrels, legal services to
the poor, unions for migrant farm workers and many more. Abramoff and
others milked corporations and wealthy conservatives for years and lived
very well indeed. One of the more successful projects raised millions for
the defence of Ollie North in the Iran-Contra criminalities. Ollie
memorabilia were hot sellers for a time. Very profitable enterprises.

Reagan said that the best minds were not in government
and set out to make this a reality by suppressing civil service pay and
stuffing politically sound people into his government. In 1982, 59% of
sub-cabinet appointees had no experience in government and 78% of the
appointees in independent agencies and everyone in the independent
regulatory agencies. The Wall Street Journal supported this action by
stating that the government had no business hiring the nation's most
talented people because this was depriving the economy of its driving
force. Clinton carried on with similar policies and the younger Bush went
much further by using the right wing think-tank, The Heritage Foundation
as a conduit for job seekers. Hiring Justice Department lawyers from
Falwell's University is another example.

The result was massive incompetence as Katrina
uncovered or as seen in Iraq where young ideologues with no experience
were managing a budget of $13 billion and looking after pallet loads of
one hundred dollar bills. This was no accident. It is a basic principal of
conservatism that turning over government operations to private business
is the most efficient way of getting things done. The destruction of the
quality and morale of the federal workforce is, in the eyes of the right,
a triumph. Screwing up the civil service is a good thing. Under Bush, the
civilian payroll is the lowest since 1950 but federal expenditures have
expanded to their highest level. The difference is accounted for by
private contractors who are not accountable and are shielded from
oversight.

Outsourcing is the current ideology but not just to
anyone. Contractors must have their conservative bona fides and be willing
to donate part of their take to the party. An interesting example is the
legislation worked out by Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens which allows Alaska
Native Corporations to be set up and receive unrestricted no-bid federal
contracts. Indigenous authenticity is implied but not required and
executives rarely are natives. Although these corporations do not have any
technical competence, they receive federal contracts which they then
sub-contract to anyone, without bids.

Frank has a chapter on the revolving door
which allows people to move between the private sector and government
without restriction. In 1995 record keeping of these movements was
discontinued by the Republican Congress so the magnitude of this flow is
not known. Thus there are activities like a Big Pharma executive hired to
set up legislation for Bush's Medicare and then moving back to his old job
or the Pentagon buyer who wrote a contract to Boeing for $20 million and
then moved to Boeing to administer it. The Homeland Security Department is
described as a "networking bootcamp for future private contractors
dreaming of big paydays." The door is also used by members of
Congress; forty-three percent of those leaving in 1998 became lobbyists.
He points out absurdities like John Bolton, a veteran denouncer of the UN
being named ambassador to the UN. And an Andrew Biggs who made a career of
denouncing Social Security being made the number two man there.
And William Bennett being made the secretary of education after earlier
working to deny funding for public schools in order to have charter and
religious schools replace them. And crusaders against birth-control being
appointed to overseeing birth-control assistance to the poor. And
lobbyists are now offering their services to cities and municipalities to
arrange earmarks with the largest firm employing a staff of ninety to look
after a client list of three hundred.

Some of the same things are happening in our country.
Harper wants to do to the Liberals what Stalin did with the kulaks-
liquidate them as a class. We see continuing attacks on the career civil
servants and their timidity about disclosing anything to the public. A
large proportion of the military budget now goes to contractors who work
on a cost plus basis with terms not disclosed. And huge military equipment
orders awarded without tenders. In our province the government makes
private deals with Big Oil and asks the taxpayer to trust them. Of course
the massive gifts to the financial sector to ward off a recession they
created is the most galling.